Shrewd As Serpents

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

"Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves."
Matthew 10:16​

A few years back, a pagan once said to me: "You Christians have the innocent as doves part down, but Jesus also said to be shrewd as serpents. And Christians don't have that part down very well."

To this day I see it as something the Lord was showing me, using this young man to do it. Because, as we embrace the one part of Jesus's command and turn our eyes from the other, we abandon the truth. And truth is what represents God.

For example, I will admit that when I was in college, young, new to the internet, naive, and trusting of anything my friends said to me (because they truly were well-meaning, if as naive as I). During this time I received an email. You know the kind. It's something to the tune of, "Billy Graham pleas for your help in overturning Lisa Ireland's proposed legal ban on profamily television or any show that mentions God." (This is my reworking of one of the more recent emails being circulated.) And there are instructions to get ten more people to sign a petition and send it to another email address where the petitions will be collected and turned in to the government on our behalf.

I believed one of many such emails and sent it, until I got a little older and a little more experienced with how this thing works.

Christians claim to have the absolute truth. So, a nonChristian sits behind the computer and composes an outright lie such as the one above, in order to stir zeal in us and watch us, who profess to have the truth, spread a huge lie. This is to discredit us. The people who fabricated the lies laugh, their friends laugh, and they use the hoax as peer pressure to intimidate any of their friends who might actually be thinking of coming to the truth.

When the intimidated friend sees how many truth-witnesses have believed lies and spread lies and have looked rather silly in the process, he no longer wants anything to do with those caught up in The Big Hoax.

That's when I learned that we have to learn how the serpent thinks, keeping our white hats on, in order to discern and tell the truth.

 

[heartnsoul]

Excellent point! Discernment is something that definitely needs to be something all Christians need to practice and learn how to do. It takes making a few mistakes and learning from them that eventually leads to better decision making (discernment). God blessed all of us with a brain. We need to realize that God does expect us to use our brains. We're not puppets on a string or robots that God controls. God gave us free will so hopefully as we grow and mature in Christ, we make better decisions too.

So by becoming wiser, not only will we avoid the pitfalls of serpent deceptions, but we also become happier and more peaceful as we live a life worthy and glorifying to God. May God bless all of us in our spiritual journey as we learn the truths and practice discernment.

 

[TheOriginalWhitehorse]

Excellent point! Discernment is something that definitely needs to be something all Christians need to practice and learn how to do. It takes making a few mistakes and learning from them that eventually leads to better decision making (discernment). God blessed all of us with a brain. We need to realize that God does expect us to use our brains. We're not puppets on a string or robots that God controls. God gave us free will so hopefully as we grow and mature in Christ, we make better decisions too.

So by becoming wiser, not only will we avoid the pitfalls of serpent deceptions, but we also become happier and more peaceful as we live a life worthy and glorifying to God. May God bless all of us in our spiritual journey as we learn the truths and practice discernment.

Very true. We do become wiser. It's not that we're not using our brains, though; it's that we haven't done anything wrong. So, we don't suspect anyone else of wrongdoing wither, until we encounter a few snakes.

Then we take another strategy. We play the game for a while, remembering the Lord's word never returns void, and we pray that God will use His word to save some of them although we're perfectly aware of the con. We just know something they don't: God's word always achieves the purpose for which it was sent. In the words of Bob Coy: "The same sun that melts wax hardens clay." We don't know the Lord's intent with them as we play the game-yet. But God will use it one way or the other.

Then we get tired of it, too, and leave it in the Lord's hands. While we pray for the conversion and sanctification of the serpents, we are also aware that God doesn't always answer that prayer. He asks it of us for our own perfection, not necessarily for their sanctification.

 

[e-bwm]

While we are instructed to "be wise as serpents ", we still must be "harmless as doves".
That is a delicate line to walk. We can be too careful or "wise" and distrust everyone and be harmful in that manner or we can be too "harmless" and believe everyone but in fact end up causing more harm in the long run. The best advice in support of this command is in Ephesians.

15 See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise,
16 Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.
17 Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.